Cargo carrying vehicles such as refrigerated and dry freight trailers, vans, delivery trucks and rail cars typically include a cargo holding body having a floor supported on an undercarrage, a roof, a rear door and side walls extending between the floor and the roof. For brevity, as used herein, all such cargo carrying vehicles will be referred to as trailers. The side walls include support members that support inner (interior) and outer (exterior) side walls or skins. The roof includes an interior wall. Because cargo is often loaded into the trailer body on pallets using lift trucks, the interior walls are subject to damage from the pallets and lift truck forks.
Traditionally, wood was used for trailer inner walls. However, wood has several disadvantages including relatively heavy weight of the wood reducing fuel economy and trailer load capacity and susceptibility to damage from pallets and lift truck forks. One proposed solution was to replace some or all of the wood used for the inner walls with a plastic composite material (e.g., fiber reinforced plastic) liner. Such plastic composite liners are durable and lighter in weight than the wood.
Depending on the nature of the cargo being shipped, certain portions of the plastic composite liner were subject to frequent impact and damage, for example, by the extending forks of a lift truck during loading and unloading of pallets. Portions of the plastic composite liner subject to frequent impact and damage were reinforced with a scuff panel or band (commonly referred to in the industry as a “scuff”) to provide additional protection to the liner. The scuff panel, for example, may extend horizontally along a bottom portion of the plastic composite liner adjacent to the floor to protect against repeated impact of lift truck forks when pallets are placed on or lifted from the trailer floor. The scuff panel may be fabricated in steel, aluminum, plastic or plastic composite materials.
Different methods have been used for affixing a scuff panel to a plastic composite liner including fasteners, welding or use of a bonding agent. Such methods have proved costly and cumbersome to implement and, in some cases, create snag points along the liner that can damage cargo, the liner or the scuff panel.
What is needed is a plastic composite liner with an integral scuff panel for a trailer that is efficient and economical to fabricate. What is also needed is a plastic composite liner with an integral scuff panel that is lightweight, impact resistant and durable. What is also needed is a plastic composite liner with an integral scuff panel which has a smooth, snag-free inwardly facing surface. What is also needed is an economical and efficient method of affixing a scuff panel to a plastic composite liner to create a liner with an integral scuff panel with a high joint strength between the liner and the scuff panel.